Arcade Queen
by Bent137
Summary: Jess and Rory go shopping and to the arcade. Made of oh so much fluff. : [OneShot]


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Story: Arcade Queen

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Author: Bent137/Ash

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Rating: PG

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Improv: nimbus ~ jade ~ token ~ endear

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Disclaimer: If they were mine, I could afford to be totally comfortable right now. I'm not, I'm freezing because it's either freeze, or fry.

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Authors Note: I don't know Lorelai's birthday. So don't ask. It was needed for the plot.

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Spoilers: May introduce Characters and situations not seen in Season One.

Rory Gilmore jogged out of her room then turned around and jogged right back into it as Lorelai watched from the couch. Seconds later Rory came jogging back out with a book in her hand. She hurried towards the door as Lorelai watched. "Where are you going?" Lorelai asked.

Rory poked her head into the living room, "Jess and I are hanging out today, and I'm late." She turned and ran out the door.

"Hey! Movie night tonight!" Lorelai yelled after her.

"Okay," Rory yelled back.

Rory hurried into Luke's where Jess was filling a napkin dispenser. "Sorry I'm late," she sighed slipping onto a stool.

Jess grinned, "That's okay. Coffee?"

"Need you ask?"

"Oh yeah, momentary brain lapse." He turned and filled a to go cup with coffee and handed it to her then grabbed a book out from under the counter and walked around it to her. "Let's go."

"Okay, where are we going today?"

They walked out the door to Luke's and paused. "That depends," Jess said.

"On what?" Rory asked taking a drink of her coffee.

"Well, we could go to Hartford and do something. Or we could just sit here and read."

"You know, I haven't been to Hartford for anything besides school and dinner in a long time."

"Hartford it is, any idea what you want to do?"

"Yeah, I need to get something for my mom's birthday so can we go to the mall?"

"Sure," Jess answered.

They headed for the bus stop, and were just in time to catch the bus. About 45 minutes later they were walking into the air conditioned confines of Crystal Mall. Almost immediately Rory dragged him into a nearby department store. He didn't even know which one. They began browsing near the jewelry.

"Hey," Jess said, "How about that?" He pointed to a ring in the case. It was silver, with an intricate design and some green stone in it.

Rory walked up and looked at it. "Yuck, no. That's jade, Mom hate's jade. It once tried to kill a pearl of hers." Rory turned and walked deep into the purses.

Jess watched her go and raised his eyebrows, "Right," he muttered.

All of a sudden Rory came barreling at him a bright pink purse in her hand. "I got it! It's perfect," she exclaimed as she examined it.

"What is it?" Jess asked incredulously.

"It's a 'Josie and The Pussycats' purse."

"Oh. So we're done? Because maybe we could get some coffee, and hang out in the bookstore downtown."

"Yeah we're done. Coffee sounds good too. Except I want to go to the arcade before we leave," Rory said heading towards the register.

"Yeah sure," Jess answered following her.

About fifteen minutes later they walked into the arcade, Rory swinging her bag at her side. She pulled out a dollar bill and stuck it in a machine just inside the door, four tokens rattled out. She snatched them and bee lined for what looked like a crane game to Jess. He followed and watched as she stuck in the token. The machine was filled with tickets bundled into groups. On her first try, Rory managed to hook three of them. After they dropped into the cubby she stuck in another token and hooked two more. By the time she was out of tokens she had a total of seven ticket groups. Jess watched in amazement.

"You're good," he admitted.

"Yeah," Rory said, "But it takes practice. You should give it a shot."

"I will," Jess said and went back to the token machine. While he was gone Rory counted her tickets, each group had the number in it marked on the outside with black marker. Jess came up beside her, "How many?"

"250."

"Wow," Jess said and stuck a token in the machine. When Jess was done he had only six ticket groups.

"Six, not great, but admirable," Rory said with a grin, "Count 'em."

Jess did, "200."

"Decent. Together we have 450."

They took their tickets to the counter and exchanged them for a pewter statue of a kitten that Rory saw. As they walked out of the Arcade Rory looked up at Jess, "I guess I'm the Arcade Queen huh?"

"I guess so," Jess replied, "Does that make me your king?"

Rory smiled, "Absolutely. Come on, lets get a coffee, then hop the bus to the bookstore."

It was late when they got home. They walked to Luke's and Lorelai was there about to have dinner. "I was wondering where you guys were," she said when they walked in.

"We went to the mall in Hartford," Rory explained.

"Sounds like fun, did you get me anything?"

"Maybe."

"Mean," Lorelai pouted.

"Yup. I know. I did bet Jess in the arcade though," Rory changed the subject.

"Oh by how much?"

"One."

Lorelai nodded, "Admirable."

"Yeah that's what I said," Rory agreed.

"Total?"

"450."

"Got?"

"Pewter Kitten," Rory said pulling it out of her pocket.

Lorelai took it and examined it, "Very nice. Add it to the collection."

"Will do."

"Okay so let's order dinner, and then hurry home. Harry awaits us."

Rory nodded, "Okay."

Much, much later that night....

Lorelai groaned as she got up, "I ate too much."

"Glutton," Rory said as she stretched.

Lorelai looked at the stairs, "I wish I had a Nimbus 2000 so I could just fly upstairs."

Rory yawned as Lorelai walked to the stairs, "Hey mom."

"Yeah," Lorelai turned around.

"You're okay with me and Jess?"

"Yeah, the punk endeared himself to me somehow. But we'll discuss it in the morning."

"Okay," Rory said. Both Gilmore's stumbled to their beds and fell into them.


End file.
